Category Archives: Mounting

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One of the features of the GoPro Hero5 that I initially thought sort of a gimmick, but have learned to really like, is its voice-control feature. This allows me to start and stop project videos much more often without disturbing my camera’s aim each time. This gave me the idea that I could use this feature, and recorded audio to control the camera. What I came up with is this GoPro Hero5 Automatic Panorama Fixture:

Although it works intermittently at times, I was able to get some really neat panoramic results, stitched together with Photoshop elements at around 3:00.

After some initial whining about the Hero5 Black’s mechanical construction, I’ve really come full circle, as it has some really incredible features. I plan to do a review on it eventually, but you can check it out on Amazon for other people’s opinions (or apparently you can save around $30 (also Amazon) if you’re willing to forgo fancy packaging).

This was a big project, so you can find more information and background on my JCoPro.net site as well. Though I try to make this site about short project or summaries of others’ work, this definitely fits in as a DIYTripod!

If you’d like to mount your GoPro or other device to a metallic surface, there is nothing better that I know of than neodymium magnets. I previously made one using a hard drive magnet, which worked well, but it had a few disadvantages which this addresses:

You need a hard drive to get that kind of magnet – these disks are easily available.

When set on a flat surface, this mount is long and wide enough to allow it to rest there without toppling over.

Plasti Dip means that a sensitive surface shouldn’t be scratched, though I’ve found that parts of my coating have been flaking off (Idea per Ben Nelson in the other magnet mount post).

The video below shows how to make this GoPro Magnet Mount. To summarize: buy magnets, stick them on the adhesive pad, then coat with Plasti Dip.

If you’d like to build your own, here are some parts from Amazon that should work, though what I used may be slightly different:

If you make projects in your garage or workshop as I do, you’re always looking for a new way to enhance how you film. I’d like to think that my videos keep getting better, but both my techniques and equipment could certainly still be improved.

Here’s one rather exotic fixture from Frank Howarth. Using a series of gears cut out of wood, it allows a camera to orbit around whatever he’s working on. The motor’s speed is controlled and the gears reduce the rotational output so that the camera will spin extremely slowly.

As seen in the video below, both the Orbiting Time-Lapse Fixture build and the resulting spinning time-lapse sequence are quite excellent!